Programs

Gilded offers programs to help involve the community and give access to the power of sound editing.

Gilded Audio Programs

At Gilded Audio we offer programs to engage with the community and give people more access to the world of sound design.

Signal to Noise

The Signal to Noise Award is a collaboration between Gilded Audio Design and UnionDocs which provides an opportunity for an audio project to come to life by awarding one applicant a production grant to pursue their project or series. The award celebrates creative work that synthesizes audio documentary and experimental sound design.

The award includes: $5000 for production, production consultation and technical support from Gilded Audio Design, editorial consultation from the staff of UnionDocs, and a celebratory event at the UnionDocs space in Brooklyn.

The winner receives a free Hindenburg Journalist PRO license, and all applicants will receive a 6-month Hindenburg trial, plus a discount code towards the full license.

The only requirements for the award are that the proposed project must use creative or experimental sound design to help support the message of the project and that all projects must have a “documentary” element. All styles of audio production are considered.

About the 2018 Signal to Noise Recipient

Gilded Audio Design, in partnership with Union Docs, is proud to announce Ariana Martinez as the winner of the inaugural Signal To Noise award. The award is presented to support work on her project Para cruzar el agua / To Cross the Water.

Para cruzar el agua / To Cross the Water is an experimental transmission arts project that works to document the hopes, fears, and expressions of love that Puerto Ricans share from both the island and the U.S. mainland. This project will work with New York City's historic and thriving Puerto Rican communities to create a

series of audio postcards to be broadcast from AM radio stations in Puerto Rico. This project will also work to transmit audio postcards from Puerto Rico back to communities in New York City.AM radio served as a critical lifeline for Puerto Ricans in the aftermath of Hurricane

Maria when fallen power lines and overburdened cell towers failed to connect Puerto Ricans to their loved ones or convey vital emergency information. This project chooses the medium of AMradio to ensure that these messages willreach their destination no matter what conditions persist or arise in the future.

With over 100 submissions from 6 different countries, it was an extremely tough decision to choose only one. We were humbled and inspired by the amount and variety of great ideas put forth by the applicants, and would like to send a sincere thanks to all who spent time and energy on their applications, as well as to our partners at Union Docs for spreading the word and assisting us in administering the award, and to Hindenburg Systems for donating trial copies of its Hindenburg software to each applicant.

Extended Techniques

Extended Techniques is a lecture series hosted at Gilded Audio Design’s studio intending to amplify creative audio production ideas by inviting a progressive artists and engineers to share their knowledge and demonstrate their methods. Through demonstration and discussion, our featured speakers will open the audience’s minds to new avenues of creation - connecting members of the audio community and fostering an attitude of sharing and co-operative professional development.

Zach Poff is a New York area media artist, educator, and maker-of-things. His artwork is rooted in open systems that eschew individual authorship in favor of collaborative or generative models. His algorithmic remixes of popular media uncover hidden subtexts lurking inside familiar forms (Radio Silence, Video Silence). Other recent work employs unique sound tools to explore the web of social and ecological relationships that challenge and sustain us (Pond Station, Sferics). He considers his art-making, teaching, and software development to be contributions toward a culture of sharing & empathy, in direct opposition to commercial media’s cult of the individual.

In this talk, Zach will introduce recording techniques using D.I.Y transducers to reveal hidden sounds & sonify non-acoustic phenomena. Together, we will explore contact mics, hydrophones, synesthetic light-to-sound conversion, and electromagnetic pickups. We will listen to examples of sound art, music, and installations where these techniques stretch our ears toward new ways of considering our natural and built environments. These techniques are quite accessible for those with more curiosity than money. Zach will also share his resources to help you build transducers for your own work.